Many objects and animals must be tethered by ropes to keep them from moving away from a desired location.
Horses and dogs, for example, must be trained to calmly accept being tied to a stationary object. Young horses not accustomed to being tied in a stationary position often panic and attempt to pull away from the stationary object. Similarly, older horses spoiled in their training, may panic, feel trapped, and pull back in panic or fight when tied. Most dogs, too, will pull back on a secured leash or rope to escape and attend to other activities of more interest to the dog. If additional rope is not allowed to play out in these situations, the animal's panic, pulling, and resistance increase.
Many inanimate objects, such as boats, must also be tied by a rope to a dock or other object, but need a certain amount of slack or extra rope when waves or other water movement cause them to move and pull on the rope. If slack is not provided in these instances, the boat may strike, or repeatedly strike, nearby objects and be damaged.
In tree trimming and removal operations, an additional length of rope may also be needed to permit some movement in the tree limb or other part of the tree being cut or removed.
Indeed, there are many applications in which an object must be secured with a rope and, after securing or tying, require an additional length of rope due to environmental forces or conditions that cause the object to move and pull on the rope by which it is secured.
Many conventional, prior art rope ties do not easily allow an additional length of rope to be extended to accommodate for the movement of the animal or other tied object. If such rope ties do allow for additional rope to be extended in order to permit movement, there is usually no convenient way to retrieve the additional rope, or slack, once it is extended.
Many existing rope ties require the rope to be knotted to an anchor of some type. When the tied object moves, the knot tightens and may be very difficult to untie in order to provide an additional length of rope to accommodate movement. When the slack or additional rope is no longer needed the knot must be untied and retied in order to secure the object or animal with the desired length of rope and tension. Since it may be difficult for the user to know in advance the amount of slack needed for a particular application, or may be difficult to knot the rope to provide the optimal amount of slack, it is often necessary to secure an animal or object subject to movement several times—i.e., by trial and error—to achieve the optimal or desired rope length, which is time consuming and requires constant attention to the tie during the adjustment period.
Mechanical and spring loaded ties have been used to attempt to achieve more flexible and adjustable tying arrangements; however, they have movable parts that are subject to mechanical failure or unexpected rapid movements that may further panic or scare an animal and generate another round of panic, anxiety and pulling or, in the case of other movable objects, cause unexpected and undesirable movements of the object tied. Many mechanical ties do not provide a secure, solid attachment to a fixed support, and some mechanical ties must be held by a user who may not be strong enough to properly resist the movement of large animals or objects or quick enough to move with the changing play in the rope.